4th of July Fun!

Well the fourth of July was tons of fun! It started Thursday night for us and ended on Saturday afternoon. Thursday night i was able to go up to my sister Maureen's home and participate in their neighborhood parade. It was the cutest thing and it felt like a movie because I couldn't believe a neighborhood actually did something like that! The kids all decorated their bikes, scooters or whatever they were riding, as well as dressed up. We all met at a neighbors house and then got in a line and walked down the road. It was so cute! It was fun to see how excited all the kids were. There was one girl in particular who was totally decked out in a unitard, and I couldn't stop laughing. They also had the North Salt lake fireworks that we were able to watch in the front yard. It was alot of fun.

cute little Mckell in her wagon

totally decked out girl

Friday we were able to go back up to Maureen's for fun games and fireworks. We had super good food and played lots of fun games. Maureen made up cute games like the jello eating contest, three legged race, raw egg toss, and water balloon fight (which turned into a full out water war). We had lots of fun, and it was fun to see how excited the kids were with everything going on.

Mike and Ian getting ready for the Jello eating contest

Jake eating his jello

Mike after the jello eating contest

Three Legged Race

being excited during fireworks

McKell and her fireworks

Jake and Ian dancing during the flashing fireworks

Saturday we went hiking to the Timpanogas caves with Maureen's family. It was alot of fun, and the kids made it all the way to the top. After taking only a few breaks and being super sweaty we were able to go into the caves. It was fun to see how excited the kids were and how much fun they had. Tyler was able to have the important job of shutting the doors after the whole group went through, and he made sure he did his job well. It was tons of fun!

Inside the caves

Family picture inside the caves

Jake looks like he's trying to model, and I look overly excited

Hiking the Stansbury Mountains

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go on my first backpacking trip, but sadly Jake couldn't come because he has to work on the weekends. I had a great time, although my brothers and sister would probably say differently :) I didn't realize backpacking was so tough, and I was glad the first day we started it was dark so no one could see me crying because I was so tired. The trip made me realize how out of shape I am! It is so sad! Even though I was lame and tired the whole time, I did have alot of fun. I am posting pictures below and hope you enjoy! The neat thing is that the mountains were only about 45 minutes away, so it was so close. I am amazed that a place so beautiful is so close to SLC. Some highlights from the trip:

• Running away from flies at the lake we hiked to, and then having them follow us all the way back to our tents.


• Ian finding a snake on the hike


• Finding three goat legs randomly on the trail, and Ian actually touching them
  
• Eating a mountain meal with the four of us eating off of one fork and passing it around
  
• Going home and getting tons of food and eating almost all of it....It seemed like the best meal ever!
• Vic and me putting up our tent on slanted ground and us sliding toward the bottom of the tent during the night

Here are some pics:

A Little update

Just thought I would give a little update as to what we have been up to lately. Life continues to be good- we are both working and trying to find fun things to fill our time together with. We seem to be seeing alot of movies lately, but it's fun! Good movies we would recommend: the new Indiana Jones movie, and Kung Fu Panda. We thought they were good! Kung Fu Panda has Jack Black in it- so vic it's not a recommendation for you! This past week I had an opportunity to plan a conference for a group of publishers that were coming in for a 2 day training. I was able to make the agenda, plan all the food and activities, as well as give an hour presentation on what I do for the company. At first I was super nervous because I wanted everything to be perfect, but then I realized the conference only had men coming, so as long as there was food there it wouldn't matter what it was. It turned out really well!
Two weeks ago we were able to go boating with Jake's family. Jake's brother in law, Greg, bought a boat and was nice enough to take us all boating! I included pictures below. We went tubing the entire time, and I even got to drive the boat! It was cold for a little while, but after our bodies became numb it was perfect! Jake came back with a super sunburned face, and i only got sun on my nose. Jake's brother had a long sleeve shirt on the whole day, and when he took it off, it looked like he was wearing gloves because only his hands got sun....

Jake being the flag boy- whenever someone fell off the tube he had to put the flag up

me getting ready to get into the tube

Jake, his brother Danny, and Greg going out on the lake to try wakeboarding

This is Gavin (Greg's son)- everyone was trying to get his shirt off so he would go in the water, and he was screaming and fighting the whole time.

We have been spending some time fixing things up around the house. I decided I wanted to try potting plants, so I put some in the pot below the mailbox, and put some in pots on the front door step. I am super excited, because the plants have gotten bigger! I am actually able to keep plants alive! I planted some green onion and carrots in pots on the back doorstep, so we will see how those turn out...

This is the hosta planted beneath the mailbox- there are purple flowers on them now!

Plants on the front doorstep- obviously after I watered them

Jake putting up the shower curtain in the bathroom- you can't see it very well, but he had all of the hooks lined up at the top of his shorts

Life continues to be fun! We hope you are all doing well!

Wedding Pictures

So after forever, here are some of our wedding pictures! I just wanted to give you a quick preview, and will be putting a link to all of them on the blog in a little bit. Enjoy!!!

Pictures!

Since I haven't really said anything much, I thought I would post pictures of the latest things that have been going on. I will just put a short caption under each one, so you know where it is from....

This is us lookin' good on our honeymoon taking a gondola ride in the Venetian

This is me being really excited to get onto the gondola...can't you tell?

Jake in M&M World, I made him stand with the yellow one because yellow and red are friends (the M&M's) and he was in a red shirt... he was really excited about that...

Jake touching some random ocean animal at the shark reef in Mandalay Bay

BYU graduation- I don't know who is more excited, me or my dad?

Me and both my parents

Me, Jake, and Jake's parents (at graduation of course :) )

I will be getting wedding pictures tomorrow, so look for that update! I will try to keep up on the blog!! I hope you are all doing well!

Wonderful Married Life!

Well we have been married about one and a half weeks. It has been incredibly fun! The wedding went well, all except for the photographer not showing up, but my friend Andrea saved the day and took lots of pictures. We should have some from other friends, as well as from our families, so overall we should have alot of good ones! I had a problem during our engagement pictures in that I kept making weird faces so we only had a couple to choose from, but after looking at the wedding pictures jake's parents took, jake told me that I did a good job not making too many weird faces. So A+ for me!
Our reception turned out really well, with my family putting up decorations and refilling food and everything. Everyone did an amazing job, and it turned out great! It was fun to have lots of people and see old friends. So I can't think of lots of details of the wedding and everything, so I am going to give just a couple highlights I can remember:
* Going through the temple to receive my endowments and having friends and family there.
* Getting a speeding ticket on my way home from Jake's the night I went through the temple- I was even completely honest extremely nice and he still gave me a ticket!
* Graduation from BYU Friday morning and making a comment to the girl next to me about one of the faculty members looking like she was from Harry Potter, and the girl looked at me like I was an idiot.
* Jake and I rushing through Costco like maniacs trying to get all the food for the reception so we could make it in time to the family/friend dinner that night.
* Parking at the Dinner being insane, so everyone parked in random spots (sad for the people wearing high heels- not fun)
* The night before the reception we had a huge fruit/vegetable cutting party with my family at my sister's house. We ripped through that stuff so fast! It was seriously amazing, and everyone helped
* The morning of the wedding I got incredibly nervous and I was hyperventilating while packing my temple bag- seriously weird.
* During the sealing my hands were the sweatiest they have ever been in my life. I was so nervous and boiling hot.
* The sealer seeing jake and i for the first time and telling us we were a good looking couple, and then looking at jake and saying "you are very good looking"
* The sealer being serious during the whole ceremony and then saying "to infinity and beyond" at the end.
*Walking out the temple doors to no photographer, but friends and family taking millions of pictures.
*trying to coordinate pictures when we had millions of people was kind of crazy!
* jake and I eating at Carl's Junior right after the pictures were over, and then running up to my sister's to get ready for the reception.
* Seeing friends I haven't seen for a while during the reception
* My dad bringing me a drink during the reception in case I was thirsty- I thought it was super cute
* Randy and Vic kicking me and jake out and not letting us talk to anyone once the reception was over

These were just a couple things that stick out to me- I will be getting pictures up soon hopefully! thanks for everyone who helped, we really, really appreciate it! You are all wonderful and made the wedding and reception so much fun!

He's a Real-Live Cop!

So this weekend was full of lots of excitement! Jake finished his training with other officers (FTO's) and he started his first week on his own. Saturday night we went to SLC to go to his sister's play and then afterwards we picked his police car up from the precinct and drove it to his house. It was alot of fun riding in his car and seeing all the buttons and gadgets they have inside. I never realized how many things they have to have in their cars! I felt funny in normal clothes riding in a police car, but it was fun! I could tell that Jake loved it, because once we got back to his house he turned the sirens on for like one second and scared the heck out of me. We had dinner with some of our friends the next day at Jake's house and he got to show them his car which was lots of fun for everyone... I do have to admit that I like him being on his own because I get to talk to him more.
We have less than seven weeks before the wedding and I am getting super excited. I am excited for my classes to be over, the whole family to be together, and to go to vegas. We decided to see Phantom of the Opera and the Ka Cirque de Solei (sp?) shows. Does anyone have any other ideas of what to do? We want to do lots of different stuff! It is exciting to plan things and know that it isn't too far away.